M-05 Car Park Basher Build

[ChrisRx718]

I know right, starting another build thread without having finished any of the following builds I'm currently documenting:

• DF-02 Aero Avante
• CC-01 Jurassic Park Jeep
• TL-01LA
• MF-01X 934 (LA suspension update coming soon I promise)
• DT-02MS build

You get the idea. I'm good at starting stuff, then fall at the 90% hurdle and never complete it. Or I forget to update the thread. 

I have long been obsessed with M-Chassis cars and currently have-

• M-04M Eunos Roadster (shelf duty)
• M-03R Mini Cooper (shelf duty)
• M-06 with Ferrari Dino body (undocumented / no images!)
• TT-01 3Racing M-Chassis conversion (runner - drifter)
• MF-01X Jimny (runner, trail cross thing, jack-of-all-trades, master of none)
• MF-01X Escort MK2 Rothmans (unfinished / undocumented)

Some images below just to liven this thread up a bit:

 

So I'm somewhat of an M-Chassis hoarder collector almost by accident. 

The M-03R used to have an M-03 stable-mate, which I sold really cheap back in 2012. A mildly-hopped-up M-03 with Mini Cooper bodyshell in custom "Hasseröder" red and yellow livery. Looked great - regret selling it.

The M-03R is too precious to run now, both the body and the chassis are very hard to obtain. Especially the chrome-plated body of the "R" spec. I know some of you reading this will groan that these cars just aren't made for sitting on a shelf, but unfortunately I'm a very unskilled driver at the best of times, so it would be suicidal to put the M-03 through its' paces on a stone-ridden retail car park 

This left me with a quandry - I have a RWD basher - the M-06, a couple of 4WD bashers - the MF-01X and TT01M - but no "frontie".

I had acquired a lot of spare M-05 parts from building 2 of my 3 MF-01X's as "BITSA" builds, so it seemed like a no-brainer to build the M-05 at the beginning of 2023 - a car which was very much still in production by Tamiya and it appeared that the M-07 was aiming for a different target audience altogether.

Surely; obtaining parts and Hop-Ups to do a "BITSA" M-05 build in 2023 would be a piece of cake?

...Wrong.

Turns out; the aftermarket has really dried up on M-05 parts, be it OE-spec Tamiya genuine Hop-Ups or Yeah Racing / 3Racing etc. Parts are very thin on the ground - even using Japanese auction sites.

I had very few criteria - I already had suspension arms and various upright bits, some universal swing shafts and a diff. Not much of a starting point, but BITSA builds have definitely started from less of a stash.

My very first error was failing to document the build from the beginning, only subsequently deciding that TamiyaClub needed even more M-05 content after watching @Tamiyastef's build thread. 

So here's the first picture of my build:

Spec so far-

VerII chassis A-Parts
Carbon Reinforced suspension arms
M-Chassis Universal Swing Shafts / CVDs
TA-03 Ball Differential
Aluminium Steering bridge
Aluminium steering post things
Oddly; MF-01X battery retainers. Not sure why.
Blue-Bird Metal-Gear servo, not even sure if it works yet (sure hope so)

Clearly, some retail therapy was required.

Car-park spec tyres (apparently these are quite hard-wearing, we'll see)
The all-important Mini Cooper Wheels
Servo Saver

But wait, there's more:

The above is actually the culmination of about 5 months of searching for parts. Crazy as that seems, they really are hard to find now.

Not pictured I have also acquired-

GT-Tuned Motor (25T)
HW1060 ESC
3Racing M-Chassis oil dampers (I know, I know. These will leak. But they're blue bling and sometimes my magpie senses overwhelm me)
L&L Mini 1275GT 210mm body 
L&L Mini van 210mm body (not sure which to run yet)

That's where we're up to just now, more to follow!

[Grumpy pants]

Will be following ✅

[Tamiyastef]

Nice! I recognise some of these hop ups but you got a good selection of other upgrades as well. The Duo M-05 rebuild/M-08 build was my first ever build thread and for me it feels nice to have those builds documented. When you run into a problem someone reading your build may have encountered the same in the past and already figured out how to overcome or avoid that problem. Sometimes you are pointed out a problem you didn't realised existed or you do the same for others. For me it makes the build part of the hobby, which is a part I really enjoy, less the solo activity it usually is. It also motivates me to finish the cars as well... 

[Andreas W]

Nice build and plans. Looking forward to read more about this. 

 

Go with the van, even though the Clubman body is cool as well. 

[Alexei]

very nice. i particularly like the MX-5 bodies

[Kowalski86]

The MF-01X or even M03/TL01 battery retainers are a nice "hop up" in my book, theyre simpler (and lighter) than the M05s and they don't get in the way of removing the motor.

It's a shame that the aftermarket has dried up, with how many people still race M05s.

[JimBear]

On 9/28/2023 at 1:26 AM, Kowalski86 said:

The MF-01X or even M03/TL01 battery retainers are a nice "hop up" in my book, theyre simpler (and lighter) than the M05s and they don't get in the way of removing the motor.

Would you perhaps know if the retainer parts are on the MF-01X B sprue? The M03 ones are probably a bit harder to find ... 

[Kowalski86]

3 hours ago, JimBear said:

Would you perhaps know if the retainer parts are on the MF-01X B sprue? The M03 ones are probably a bit harder to find ... 

Either MF01X B sprue or TL01 C Sprue should work. Or you may be able to use velcro or shape your own with some plasticard.

[ChrisRx718]

I was hoping to make some more progress this weekend but my 11 year-old has been at the hospital for the last 24 hours and I'm functioning on about 3 hours of sleep 

However, I did make some progress during the previous week-

Jolly excited I was to have obtained a metal motor mount plate from Japan, even if it was the wrong one (#54184 instead of #54609).

You have to strip back quite a lot of the chassis to access the original "B2" plastic part and remove it.

But it's on reassembly that things get... Interesting:

That sure does seem to protrude pretty far upwards above the chassis plastic halves...

...I sure hope it doesn't clash with the steering arms:

...Oh tosh.

In my head this was already a runner. Despite missing the original criteria of being a "cheap" car park build by probably £100 by this point, I was committed. So I conducted sacrilege against the Tamiya blue treasure:

Tamiya, meet Dremel. Dremel, meet Tamiya. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT

Happily, this did fix my problem. It's a bit ugly though, init? Fortunately most of this grim endeavour isn't visible once the steering assembly is in-situ. But it's now definitely got to be a runner, no matter what happens next.

[Kowalski86]

I'm sorry to hear about your kid, hope they get well soon.

As for the M05, Is this just a problem with the M05 Ver II?

On my own M05 (Ver 1), the steering linkage comes close to the motor mount on full steering lock, this with a low profile servo and small servo arm. 

[Collin]

31 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

 

Tamiya, meet Dremel. Dremel, meet Tamiya. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

What does not fit, we make it fit. Great to see how fearless you cut that motoplate. Would have done the same : )

[ruebiracer]

It´s a question of which M05 version you have. The Version 2 has a different motor plate, as the plastic chassis was modified to get the motor more centered.

Anyway, I´d head to go version 2 wise for a runner.

[Tamiyastef]

Exactly what I had with my M-08/M-05 duo build. They both had problems with the steering. Solved it with Tamiya shims and not a dremel. I just couldn't start grinding away on that nice blue...

 

 

[ChrisRx718]

9 hours ago, Tamiyastef said:

Exactly what I had with my M-08/M-05 duo build. They both had problems with the steering. Solved it with Tamiya shims and not a dremel. I just couldn't start grinding away on that nice blue...

Did you shim both sides evenly then? I can't imagine having one side higher than the other would be good for the geometry / bearings. I looked at doing this but I measured that protruding metal at 1.9mm - that's a lot of shimming!

[Tamiyastef]

18 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

both sides evenly

Yes

 

18 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

at 1.9mm

I used the 2 mm blue shims from the 53539 set

[Sogogi]

Oops wrong thread

[Kowalski86]

So we're at three current build threads for the M05? I'm surprised that it's still so popular with its replacement being released recently.

It is a decent chassis though, one of the better "motorized bricks" in my book.

[technics]

@ChrisRx718 Great thread! Fond memories, I´ve split that chassis in half many times!

What wheels are on the red mx5? Looks fantastic!!

[Sogogi]

On 10/1/2023 at 10:38 AM, ChrisRx718 said:

I was hoping to make some more progress this weekend but my 11 year-old has been at the hospital for the last 24 hours and I'm functioning on about 3 hours of sleep 

However, I did make some progress during the previous week-

Jolly excited I was to have obtained a metal motor mount plate from Japan, even if it was the wrong one (#54184 instead of #54609).

You have to strip back quite a lot of the chassis to access the original "B2" plastic part and remove it.

But it's on reassembly that things get... Interesting:

That sure does seem to protrude pretty far upwards above the chassis plastic halves...

...I sure hope it doesn't clash with the steering arms:

...Oh tosh.

In my head this was already a runner. Despite missing the original criteria of being a "cheap" car park build by probably £100 by this point, I was committed. So I conducted sacrilege against the Tamiya blue treasure:

Tamiya, meet Dremel. Dremel, meet Tamiya. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT

Happily, this did fix my problem. It's a bit ugly though, init? Fortunately most of this grim endeavour isn't visible once the steering assembly is in-situ. But it's now definitely got to be a runner, no matter what happens next.

haha wow... few days ago I was able to score that motor plate... and didn't realize it is for v1.... luckily my initial build will be with v1 anyway.. so I can keep looking..

[Sogogi]

On 9/26/2023 at 1:00 PM, ChrisRx718 said:

The M-03R is too precious to run now, both the body and the chassis are very hard to obtain. Especially the chrome-plated body of the "R" spec. I know some of you reading this will groan that these cars just aren't made for sitting on a shelf, but unfortunately I'm a very unskilled driver at the best of times, so it would be suicidal to put the M-03 through its' paces on a stone-ridden retail car park 

 

well I am the one who ran m03r and broke a arm mount on a chassis. Had fun though......

[Kowalski86]

8 hours ago, Sogogi said:

well I am the one who ran m03r and broke a arm mount on a chassis. Had fun though......

An M03Rs still an M03, still worth running in my book even if it's a silly "chrome" variant. It's a shame that the chassis parts aren't in production anymore.

[Sogogi]

2 hours ago, Kowalski86 said:

An M03Rs still an M03, still worth running in my book even if it's a silly "chrome" variant. It's a shame that the chassis parts aren't in production anymore.

Yeah. It has fancy allow knuckles and stuff which i like. Though surprisingly i hate chromeplated chassis (or other parts that are plated) because those flakes a lot and make things ugly :(.

[Kowalski86]

6 hours ago, Sogogi said:

Yeah. It has fancy allow knuckles and stuff which i like. Though surprisingly i hate chromeplated chassis (or other parts that are plated) because those flakes a lot and make things ugly :(.

Chrome plated chassis make me think of chrome plated plastic parts on toys, so it looks tacky to me. And as you said, they show wear more.

[ChrisRx718]

Yeah kinda gutted that I sold my "vanilla" M-03 so cheap all those years ago. It was a great runner and the bigger Fwd touring cars don't quite hit the spot (I have an FF03 too). 

Hence building this M05. But once again we are waiting on parts from Hong Kong which I had overlooked (rear uprights). Tic toc! Good job this hasn't got a deadline...

[ChrisRx718]

Progress!

The rear-uprights finally arrived from RCMart a week or so ago.

Also included was a really quite pointless Hop-Up:

Such a tiny little thing in a location which didn't really justify / need an aluminium alternative. But when we see shiny blue stuff, we are automatically compelled to buy it.

Next up was Dampers; for some reason Tamiya 54000 has been out of stock for over 12 months everywhere you look, with the M-size aluminium dampers commanding a premium even on the used market on Japanese auction sites.

Step forward, 3Racing alternatives!

These have a bad rap, and it's mostly deserved - I'm not going to deny it. They are however ridiculously cheap - $18USD on offer. I dismantled them, switched the O-ring seals for Tamiya red ones and the damper oil seals for the Tamiya equivalent:

The springs felt way too soft as well, so I tossed them in favour of some white TRF-style springs.

Et voila-

If it wasn't for the inevitable leaks, nobody will be able to tell the difference from afar!

I then neglected to take many pictures after this point, sorry. The end was in sight.

GT Tuned Motor, Tobee Craft steering arm (couldn't find the Yeah Racing or Tamiya Hop-up anywhere!)

18T Pinion - yes it is the stock Tamiya cheese one. I need to order an 06 Mod Steel one.

 

Trimmed and offered up the L&L Mini Clubman. Looks really smart, still haven't decided on a livery for this.

The other issue I have is that the new VW Mk2 body is 239mm, whereas I have built this to 210mm. I don't really want to keep swapping parts over, so I'm now looking at either a 2nd M-05 or maybe even an M-07 for my beloved Golf 

I'm torn because it would cost £85 for another M-05 kit, or £60 for most of the parts to use up the leftovers from this build. If I go down the £60 route I'm bound to forget something and end up with build delays. 

Decisions, decisions.